


The Air here is Drier

by UnfairOrder



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure, Blood and Injury, Corpo V (Cyberpunk 2077), Eventual Happy Ending, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 05:41:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30084360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnfairOrder/pseuds/UnfairOrder
Summary: Well V, you did it. You made it out of the City and are on your exodus to a promised land of dirt, sun, and sand. I can't say I'm not proud, but of all fucking places, Arizona?
Relationships: Judy Alvarez/V
Comments: 2
Kudos: 48





	The Air here is Drier

**Author's Note:**

> There's a lot of perspective jumps in this chapter. No the rest of this will not be that way, it's mostly just to rush through exposition so the main story can start sooner.

The sunshine slid through the slats of the solitary window in the abandoned Japan town apartment, illuminating the thick dust kicked up by a laptop’s overworked fan. A man sat behind the computer, his elbows cradling the weight of his heavy head as he massaged his temples. The noise from the laptop’s fan mixed poorly with the noise of the surrounding city. It gave him such a terrible headache, not to mention the dust, and the still present scent of the evaporating blood left by the corpse that once occupied the center of this room. _It’s a shame he had to go,_ he thought.

Now was not the time to occupy his mind with such things. He slouched back into the chair and anticipated the message coming to the screen. The dread filled his chest and fought violently with the hope it would say something positive. No, it wouldn’t be positive, less negative perhaps. Whatever that message said though would dictate what he did next, and whatever it was he felt wholly unprepared to do it. The fear of that gripped his esophagus tightly and forced him to clear his throat. Fear was not something he could afford now but it drove every action he’d taken in the recent week and many more prior to that.

He wished he could slap himself for every time that he’d let fear drive him further into the grips of others, but his face could not tolerate much more brutalizing. It’s bruises began to fade but the soreness remained, especially in his nose. He traced a finger along his lower lip and felt the scabbed over split that only days ago spilled blood over his shirt. He would need to change soon anyways, but this message was more important.

The dark screen’s blue accents flashed briefly. The fan picked up to levels on its threshold of operation as the text decoded itself. He felt his heart sink and his hope slide down his constricted throat as the message appeared one letter at a time.

HE KNOWS EVERYTHING. 153 DEAD. HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALIVE. GET OUT NOW.

The telegram’s ominous warning made his eyes water and teeth clench. Everything he knew was useless here. Everything was gone. He felt stupid, alone, and lost. All of this was his fault. If he’d just said no. If he just had the courage to stand up for himself once in his life. If he’d just been a bit braver. If he’d just said no. God, why didn’t you say no? _Because you’d be dead then too_. This was all your fault. All of this. If you’d just said no., _I couldn’t say no_. Don’t blame this on others.

He shook his head and steepled his arms against the desk as though he prayed to a god he’d not believed in in years. Maybe he did pray to someone or something because he’d hardly any hope in himself now, stuck in this barely illuminated room set to be razed from reality.

His grip on his own hands tightened before throwing the laptop off the desk at the wall in a thunderous clattering of plastic and drywall. His yell echoed through the room and seemed to silence the noise of the streets as the laptop too puttered to silence. The only noise making its way to the synapses of his temporal lobe was the repetitive constricted breathing in and out of that dusty Japan town air.

The message was right about one thing—he could not stay here. If the message was right it would only be a matter of time before they found him, and who knows what they’d do to him after that. Hell, there’d be nothing stopping them from offing him right here and now.

Getting transportation would be easy enough. There were fixers all around the area that would pay a chromed-out corpse for the info he had bouncing in his brain. It was where to go afterwards that he couldn’t decipher. Nowhere was out of their reach, and very few would be willing to step between himself and them should it come to that. Hell, no corp would even want him now, he seemed a walking omen of bad luck.

He slumped under the weight of his pulsing skull and grumbling stomach onto the rotten pile of cushions that once was a couch. He could run and run but there was nowhere to go. A silent despair set over the tense muscles in his face. If there was no hope outside the city and no hope in the city, he might as well stay here.

The advertisement screen across the street from the building shifted and spewed the trumpeted opening to the N54 news report. The change brought him to his feet and towards the shuttered window where he could watch. It was rare that any News station would just play their programming on the Large billboard ads, they only did that when it was paid for by Corps, or when the news was breaking.

“Welcome to N54 News. The Breaking story tonight: An Attack on Arasaka Tower by a group of Nomads a day ago has left hundreds dead. Among the victims are the board of directors for the company, and countless more technicians, engineers, security staff, and… Hanako Arasaka. Yorinobu Arasaka stated that ‘such gruesome and violent attacks are not unknown to the corporation, and all those involved will be held responsible.’ Arasaka also released security footage and reconstructed facial geometries to identify the perpetrators—Panam Palmer of the Aldecaldo Nomad clan, and Valerie Brunner, a former Arasaka Employee turned mercenary. The Corporation is offering a generous reward for any information on the whereabouts of these individuals.”

The second face’s cropped red hair and thick black eyeliner perked his eyes open and sent the sobering warmth of a shot down his clenched throat. _Running away to the Nomads_. He wiped his sweaty brow with the inherited overcoat and sank his head into his hands. His pounding skull told him the idea was bad, but so far it was the only actionable plan with enough uncertainty that it might succeed. He sighed.

Certainty was a luxury he no longer could afford.

* * *

The warming of the cool desert air inside the army green tent tickled V’s half asleep face. They’d arrived at this campsite just outside the dwindling town of Fort Mojave with only enough time to setup a temporary camp before V fell asleep. Piloting the Basilisk for 8 hours took quite a toll on her head, leaving a distant headache that longed for more sleep. She twisted herself around on the cot hoping for a few more minutes of peaceful rest.

“Mornin’ Sleepyhead” Judy said her eyes squinted slightly with morning grogginess. V cracked her eyes, half her face still buried in the flat pillow they shared. Judy had that wide grin on her face that seemed to create canyons at the borders of her cheeks, her strands of green and pink hair draped across her face completing the landscape.

V felt an involuntary smile form against the hard pillow as the morning grogginess in her eyes departed. A small excited flutter in her chest popped out of her as a small chuckle when she turned to fully face Judy. V pushed the hairs strewn across Judy’s deep hazel eyes out of the way and laid her hand gently across the side of her head. Judy placed her cold hand on V’s outstretched arm and traced it back to its source, gliding along her arm, lightly caressing her shoulder muscle, and ending up the side of V’s head after a brief stop along her Jaw. V shivered slightly either from the icy temperature of Judy’s hand, or from the sudden sensuousness of the wake up. Judy’s grin parted as though to say something but closed her mouth. And slid her remaining hand to meet V’s in a relaxed embrace.

“What were you going to say?” V quested. It was more of a statement than an actual question, proposed in a deep quiet bedroom voice. V’s smile turned into a slight smirk. Judy exhaled a small chuckle.

“Just thought it was funny how easy it was to leave you speechless.” Judy said, V giggled at the retort with Judy. She clasped her hand around Judy’s and rotated the embrace up and down off the bed with her elbow acting as a clock pendulum, while moving her hand down to Judy’s shoulder. It took only a few periods of the hand pendulum before Judy’s brow furrowed in curiosity.

“What are you doing you gonk?” The words barely escaped a light chuckle. She tried to put up some resistance to the movement, but V easily overpowered her attempt.

“Just felt like it” V stated without losing gaze of Judy’s entrancing eyes, even as Judy pulled herself across the bed to meet V’s lips in a kiss. V slid her hand of Judy’s shoulder around to her back and pulled herself closer to Judy’s cold body, but felt Judy move away and prop herself up on one elbow.

“Uh uh. Not yet _Mi Calabacita._ ” Judy said. V turned her face into the playful frown of a moping child.

“Awwww. But why notttt” V sarcastically spouted. Her face lit up, “You wouldn’t want me to pull the puppy eyes on you?” Judy’s face turned towards the door of the tent with a wide smile plastering it. She looked back at V with the corner of her mascaraed eye.

“What’s that look like? You turn yourself into the pug from those terrible NCPD commercials?” Judy quipped. V let a chortle loose that turned into a laughing fit.

“Ohhh, I forgot about those. God those were bad weren’t they.” V said laying straight up with her forearm resting on her forehead. She moved her eye’s back to Judy’s and a smirk touched her lips. “Stay alive out there!” Her tone and voice mocking the German Shepard officer. Judy laughed a little bit more at that.

“I’m glad I don’t have to listen to that shit anymore.” Judy said.

“Hey don’t knock ‘em too much. They had _some_ good advice.”

“Oh yeah, like what?”

“Well,” V’s tone still sarcastic as she ran through the examples, “Don’t get shot by the cops, don’t get shot by Cyberpsychos. Uhhh, don’t get shot by Nomads, don’t shoot yourself, don’t get shot by a Merc.” V paused and looked off into a distance obscured by the tent, “Yeah I think that was the extent of it?”

Judy scoffed. “Yeah I suppose that was it” She lowered herself down off her elbow down onto V’s chest. V Cradled her arm around Judy, running Judy’s messy morning hair through her fingers while the two both stared up at the ceiling of the tent. “But I don’t get to worry much about any of that anymore.” She reached her hand up to V’s chin and turned V’s head to face her. Judy grinned again and tapped V’s nose with her finger, “Cause I’ve got the best merc in… formerly in…night city sleepin’ in my bed.” V chuckled; she could feel Judy’s breathing on her shoulder now—in and out. In and out. The repetitive puffs of warm air onto V’s exposed skin warmed the bytes of her computerized soul and decaying body with the security of a castle and comfort of a campfire.

“Damnn straight” V said. Judy looked back to the top of the tent. Her Hazel eyes drifted back to old memories.

“You sound like Rita.”

“Was that the pink haired bouncer’s name?”

“Yep. She was a real toughie. I don’t think I ever heard her say ‘Yes’. It was always ‘Damnn Straight’.”

V thought back to the first time she’d met Rita. There were a few instances where’d they crossed paths prior to the fateful meeting with Evelyn. Ahh, Evelyn. That was a name that certainly would wound Judy. She’d never asked how close the two of them were. Then again, it didn’t matter much now. It might be best to let that series of unfortunate events lay to rest now. Come to think of it, it was probably best that everything from the moment V stepped into the car with Dexter Deshawn to stepping out of the cooling pool at Mikoshi like Lazarus fade to memory. She couldn’t forget Johnny though. She’d promised not too; too many broken promises, lies, and betrayals put her in this mess in the first place. Now wasn’t the time for such thoughts though.

“First time I met Rita” V said breaking the silence, “Let’s see… Oh! ‘bout a Month or two before shit hit the fan… Actually I think it was my first job with Jackie.” The slight smile of nostalgia crossed V’s face, “We had to steal a briefcase from a Corpo, got the Job from Padre. Anyways, The guy was a regular at Lizzies. One night he pops in there, so me and Jackie follow him in. One of the girls leads him to a booth, gets him setup and all. He gets the headset on and is out. Me and Jackie swoop in, pay the girl off and inch the case out from under his hand. But the Gonk woke up. Jackie ripped a haymaker into the guy’s jaw and dropped him cold.”

Judy Giggled a little. “A sheesh…”

“What?” V’s smile widened.

“And then Rita chased you two out with a bat. Was Jackie a big burly Heywood boy?” V nodded, “That’s funnyy. Rita bitched about you two too me for days after.” She changed her tone to match Rita’s as best she could, though it seemed deeper than Rita’s. “Some bigass Valentino lookin’ kid just decked one of the Clients and booked it out of here with a tiny chick with half her hair missin.” V let loose a laugh.

“Oh my… He was probably getting off to something you made when we took that case from him too.” V said, “Small fuckin’ world.”

“It’s quickly getting a hell-of-a lot bigger.” Judy said, she stared out towards the door of the tent, and the smile faded from her face.

“Hey,” V pushed Judy’s chin, so she’d face her own, “Like you said. You’ve got me, and I’ve got you. And these Nomads, you don’t know them yet but they’re some of the greatest people I’ve met. They wear their hearts on their sleeves, like you do. When things get dirty, they help clean each other off. Jude, you might’ve been a nomad your whole life and never knew it.” A smirk came to Judy’s face and she turned away from V.

“Well, any good nomad would know we been sittin here reminiscing a little too long” Judy sat up on the edge of the Cot, “How much you wanna bet that we step outside that door and they’ve already got the whole damned camp packed up and ready to go?” Judy’s grin was back, though not as wide as before.

“Didn’t think you were the betting type?” V said.

“You don’t make it this far without gambling a little bit.” Judy smiled, “Besides, I’m already all in on you.” Judy stood and stretched. All she was wearing was that grey tank-top and the magenta shorts she seemed so fond of. V shifted to sit at the edge of the cot. “Suppose we should start packing.” Judy said, she bent over to reach into her clothes bag. She’d barely pulled out one of her pairs of overalls when V bearhugged her around the waist and pulled ‘her onto her lap. Judy was alarmed by the sudden tugging, but a grin touched her face when V kissed the back of her neck. “What miss me already? I didn’t take you to be the clingy type.”

“Hmm. Maybe.” V chuckled, “Or maybe I need you to help me setup a Net connection so I can check my phone.”

“You’re such a tease” Judy scoffed, “I think Carol might be more help there than I.”

“Figured I’d ask my resident Techie first.” V loosened her grip on Judy as she stood and turned to face V. She held V’s hand in her’s beckoning V to stand up too, meeting her gaze eye to eye.

“Kind of you to think of me.” Judy said. She placed her arms around V’s shoulders and pulled her in for one more morning kiss. V put her hands-on Judy’s hips. _This is something I could get used to_ , V thought.

“Hey! Uh…Tent’s aren’t much good for knocking so I’ll just yell!” Panam’s voice came from outside the tent door. Judy released V with her eyes wide and a look of playful guilt on her face, “Everyone else is at least halfway done packing. Just wanted to make sure you two knew the ship’s leaving port soon.” Judy slipped away presumably to get dressed.

“Aye Aye, Captain!” V responded to the door, giving a sarcastic salute nobody could see.

“That’s what I like to hear sailor!” Panam replied, “Oh! And a word of advice from a lifelong nomad, if you thought the drywall in a cheap apartment was thin, just imagine how much noise makes it through these.” V heard Panam’s footsteps pace away from the tent opening.

“Noted,” V said under her breath.

“Well, you heard her, we got to get moving _mi Calabacita._ ”

“You ever gonna tell me what that means?”

“So long as your Auto translate doesn’t have a clue. No” Judy said with a smile.

_What a tease._

* * *

Only the cold white light of the parallel Nicola ad illuminated the sorrowful room and it’s busted laptop, it’s distant audio penetrating the settling dust. The place still smelt of death and the man wondered if such a stench would ever fade.

_Likely not till this place is long gone_. He wasn’t sure if the place was the city or just this building. Possibly both. He hated it here the longer he lived in this state. Nothing seemed right for him. Not even the white collared shirt and overcoat he’d changed into for his meeting with Regina fit right—all far too big for him. Tailored to someone with far broader shoulders.

His meeting with Regina went well; she’d ensured him transportation out of the city and to a badlands equipped car as soon as he called. Now he only waited for the broken laptop to find the desired bit of code.

He imagined the worm making its way through the net. That little bug carrying all the hope and uncertainty that this situation generated. Dipping and weaving down the many tunnels and tubes that made up the greater net, searching and searching for the right bit of code. The image of that small bug made him feel a little less despaired, though the anxiety of all this action made him sick.

The screen flashed.

GPS PING AQUIRED_ 

GEOLOC CODE ID:

596179206c65747320646576656c6f702061206d696e6f7220636861726163746572206173206265737420492063616e20696e20746865206c69746572616c206669727374207069656365206f662063726561746976652077726974696e672069277665206576657220646f6e652e

SEND CODE TO P.L.?

Y/N

He extracted the silicone cable from his forearm and stuck it into the jack while applying a sideways pressure to ensure a stable connection to the broken PC. His heart pounded with an unwarranted anxious excitement. This was his ticket out of the city—a periodic update on GPS location for V’s body. It was who inhabited the body now that terrified him the most about this plan, but this was better than the alternative. A good enough alternative that he almost smiled while dialing for Regina’s escort out of the city.

Almost.

* * *

The dull green Arizona fauna whizzed past the windows of the shining silver Porsche packed into the nomad clan, speeding along the untouched ancient asphalt of the desert behind the hulking black of the Basilisk. Judy’s eyes danced between the human height cacti and the dirty road ahead from the laid-back passenger seat of the elderly Porsche. The sun breached the windshield and illuminated half her face with a soothing yellow glow, while the car’s engine purred behind her. She removed her sweaty boots and placed her feet atop the dash, stretching her toes and feeling the cool air of the functional AC rush between them. The sunlight shut her eyes and caressed a grin from her face as she laid further back into the green leather chair.

“So this was Silverhand’s,” Judy posed to V, “Don’t know much ‘bout the guy, but he had taste at least” V chuckled from behind her rose red aviators, her left hand sat loosely on the thin steering wheel while her right hung hooked behind the seat. Judy’s furrowed brow opened her eyes. She chuckled her response, “What?”

“Oh, it’s nothing” V said. The smile faded to a simple grin, “He said the same thing about you after he saw you liked old tech and the Bushido flicks.”

“Huh.” Judy’s face relaxed and she laid her arms across her chest. Her gaze shifted out the front window at the oncoming highway, and her right hand tapped her bicep to the chugging of her train of thought. “What was it like having a rockerboy take over your head?”

“Well, you remember when we went diving?”

“And when you had a seizure underwater in a church?”

“Yeah.” V swapped her hands on the steering wheel. Her face lost the grin and faded back to a tabula rasa, “There were a few other incidents like that too. The last time it happened I didn’t wake up on my own. Johnny took over and walked my body to Victor’s.”

“I suppose I meant more,” Judy waved her hand through the air in front of her, “what it was like having him there?”

“Oh.” V nodded her head and smirked, petting the steering wheel with her right hand. “It certainly had its moments. Most the time he was a whiny asshole. buttt,” V’s cheeks tugged her face into a smug smile, “A few times I gave him control of my body. One of those times he broke into Kerry Eurodyne’s mansion, and convinced Kerry that it was him in my body. Long story short, ‘I’ stood in for Johnny at a Samurai reunion gig and am now on a first name basis with Kerry Eurodyne and Us Cracks.” V turned to watch Judy’s brow wrinkle her forehead and eyes go wide. Her head nodded back and forth like a bobble head as the absurd reality of that story sunk in.

Judy Scoffed and gazed out the side window. A smirk twisted her smile, “You know I shoulda just left a BD rolling on you from the moment we met.” She twisted her head to gaze back up at V from her laid back chair, “Any studio would go out of their way to get their hands on even half a scroll of what you did.”

“Well,” V smiled and glanced over at Judy, “You’ve still got the one of us?”

“Course I do! I haven’t even finished editing it!” The conversation faded back to the purring of the tuned engine and crunching of the tires. Judy’s gaze shifted to the tank green upholstery on the roof of the car, while her mind ran down a well-worn path in her head. _What was the name of that ancient BD? Badland’s Raid?_ The damned thing went Viral back in 2023 but got lost under the rubble of Arasaka Tower. Nomad BD’s became their own Genre after that, but none packed the same arsenal of subtle emotions that one had, the same weaponry she’d come to cherish in her own work. _The thing didn’t even feel that edited. Just cut and cropped,_ she recalled. Maybe the Genre needed a nice kick in the pants… “Hey V?”

“Yeah?”

“You think I could scroll a few BD’s of Nomad Raids you go on? Sell ‘em off to towns we pass through?” The proposition twisted V’s face to a grimace.

“Documenting our crimes and selling the scrolls off to random towns while we’re still topping the charts of Arasaka’s most wanted?” V shook her head, “Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea, just seems a bit risky right now.”

“Do you really think Arasaka even cares about you anymore? Wasn’t Yorinobu trying to pawn off that chip in your head when you went to steal it anyways?” Judy retorted. V took a deep breath through her nose and clenched her jaw. “I can remove all trace that it was us, just a bunch of random Nomads from Arizona!” Judy sat up while she spoke, her hands opened and waved around with a controlled and evident passion.

V sighed, “It just makes me nervous, Jude. Arasaka Intel is not something to trifle with. If they want to find you, you best bet every bit of chrome in your body they will.”

“Then why haven’t they found us yet?” Judy snapped back.

V lounged her head back against the back of the work-softened leather chair. Her fingers tapped against the side of the steering wheel while her mind ran at a thousand miles per hour back deep into the archives of her memories. The time she spent slaving away with Arasaka Intelligence before being poached by CI brought few pleasant memories to mind. The constant scheming, the games, they were fun at first. With time though, a person there put on enough facades that one couldn’t be sure whether they showed their real face or not. A real face stuck in perpetual fear and anxiety of losing everything over one mistake. Every Corpo-rat had that same subdermal face-- one that would squeal at the instant their livelihood went on the line. The trick to not getting offed was never making a mistake. Take the easy jobs first, ‘grab what you can while you can’ could’ve been the Arasaka Intelligence motto. Make yourself a low fruit, and you’re liable to get grabbed.

“They’ve not found us yet because we’re not making it easy. Arasaka isn’t in a good spot right now, and every person working there’s neck is on the line. One wrong move and, shcklllk” V swiped across her neck with her pointer finger, “Every single Corpo-rat there is doing everything in their power to take no risk at all. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to start putting larger and larger targets on our back.”

“You’re really still scared of those bastards” Judy mumbled under her breath. She’d lounged back into the seat again and covered her midriff with her folded arms. Her gaze pointed outside the passenger side window, “But I understand, V. Do whatever you think is right.”

V glanced over to Judy, laying there looking out the window with eyes that were trying and failing to forget the conversation that just happened. The disappointed and upset silence grumbled louder than the engine of the Porsche, and the sunlight seemed to burn V’s hand as it shifted through the windshield.

She’d not told Judy about her expiration date because she just wanted to be happy with Judy with what little time she had left. V bit the inside of her cheek while a burning wave of embarrassment made its way from the bottom of her lungs to her head. _Keeping Judy from doing what she loves isn’t fair to her_. V let out a conceding sigh. Judy’s wide-eyed face turned towards V. She leaned back into the leather chair and peeked over at Judy.

“What’d you have in mind?” V asked, a stupid embarrassed smirk touched her lips.

Judy scoffed and grinned, turning her attention out the side window again. “You’re a real pain in the ass sometimes Val.”

“Yeah? Well at least I’m your pain in the ass.” V paused, “Is that what Calabacita means?”

Judy smiled and shook her head. “What did I do so wrong to end up with a gonk like you?”

“Is that rhetorical?” V replied. Judy rolled her eyes with a half grin on her face. She reclined her head into her hands, closing her eyes and letting the sunlight’s warm touch on her face grow the mental seeds for a few BD’s into full ideas. But…

“One more burning question Calabacita?”

“Yeah?”

“How do you know so much about Corpo Politics?” V’s gaze snapped down to Judy’s gloating smirk on her otherwise asleep face.

“It’s... a long story” V stammered.

“I think we got time. What? think I wouldn’t notice you were a Corpo rat once?”

“I guess I didn’t think you’d care.”

“I don’t but it doesn’t mean I ain’t curious” Judy said. V glanced over to see one eye half open and staring back at her, with that stupid smirk still gloating along, “and while you’re at it, could I have your sunglasses?”

V scoffed, “So, the Corp…”

* * *

The deep painter’s red of the evening sky bathed the Aldecaldo Camp atop it’s rocky outcropping with an ethereal orange glow. The cooling air carried on a breeze brushed through the alleys of green fabric tents and rustled the pine trees standing bastion around the clearing. Beyond the Trees the flat arid brown green forest spread on for unending miles, hiding the city of Flagstaff, where they planned to turn south and travel through Phoenix and down to Tucson.

The breeze fluttered V’s hair, tickling and cooling her face. Her legs loosely dangled off a bluff on the outcropping, and her head turned towards growing glow of the setting sun. A small smile perked her sullen and wearied face. They drove for nine hours, and Panam made it sound like they would’ve kept moving if the looming grey wall of storm clouds didn’t form above Flagstaff. Instead she sat here on this bluff, watching the sun fall deeper into the mass of distanced trees with only the breeze and distant strumming of a guitar reaching her ears. A deep breath of cool thin dry air filled her lungs as she closed her eyes to feel the cooling of the evening on her forearms and face.

“Well, what’d ya think?” Panam’s friendly voice asked behind her.

“It’s quiet.” V said as a smile touched her lips. She opened her eyes and twisted her head around, “The good kind though.”

“Good to hear you’re finding some quiet time now.” Panam replied. She grinned and pointed back at the camp with her thumb, “Everyone is hanging out around the fire. We’ve got a beer waiting with your name on it.”

V nodded and turned her head back towards the setting sun, “Thanks Pan. I’ll come over in just a second.” Panam nodded and retreated to the fire from the growing blue black of the evening. V leaned back bracing herself with her elbows against the still warm rock beneath her, gazing up towards the clear half of the darkening sky.

Up there white lights flickered against the night. As time went by more appeared till the sky appeared to have only a white band of brilliant brightness streaking across it. V’s childlike gaze kept her eyes fixed on the white band of stars and black clouds hiding between them, the countless specs of distant suns shining light now onto the moonless night. V couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen a star in the night sky. Now out of the void of night came flowing trillions of them. _Just one of the things the City kept me from seeing_. She smiled. The traveling and the tents and the vast open spaces made her question leaving the city. The uncertainty of this life kept many from undertaking it. But they never told you how big the sky could be, nor how fresh the air would smell, nor how light your heart felt at the end of another day. With a final thankful glance, she stood and strode towards the distant orange flickering glow of the warm fire, and the strumming guitar sending tunes through the smokey air.

V approached the group sitting around the crackling flame, all faces she’d come to know well over the past week. Cassidy strummed a familiar tune across the strings of his guitar, sipping from a flask of the whisky that kept his breath smelling like smoked scented alcohol. Mitch poked the flame, while Carol Observed the conversation Panam kept Judy involved in.

“V!” Panam exclaimed, “Bout time you came over. Saved you one!” She tossed a glass beer bottle to V, who caught the less than cold glass in her right hand.

“Thanks.” V replied. She stepped into the circle and found a place to sit next to Judy.

“How was the first day on the road?” Panam asked. Judy turned her head and made eye contact with V through her sideswept hair, urging V to answer for her. Judy’s gaze turned back to the flame.

V looked away from Judy and placed her arm around her shoulder, “It was, pretty good. Slow for sure,” V watched Panam nod in regrettable agreement. The answer obviously wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but it was the one she expected.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Panam said looking into the flames, nostalgia glazing her eyes, “I never much liked the long drives either.”

“It wasn’t that bad.” Judy perked up. She leaned her weight into V’s side, “V makes it sound a lot worse than it was.”

“That so?” V chuckled, “Then you can drive next time.”

“I might.” Judy replied through a smirk.

“Be careful V” Mitch added, sarcasm seething his tone. He gestured with his bottle towards Panam, “You give the keys to her and the tires on that thing’ll be gone when morning comes.”

“They would now?” V raised an eyebrow at Panam. Panam looked away at the fire.

“I would not!” She fired back. She glanced over at Mitch and back into the flame. “Okay. maybe I would” she muttered under her breath, embarrassed more so because the possibility crossed Mitch’s mind before her’s.

A silence came over the fire where only the strumming of Cassidy’s guitar and the periodic cracking reached the inner ear. Judy leaned in further to V who accepted the extra weight on her side with a light squeeze. V’s eyes drifted back up towards the white scar across the heavens, her eyes catching the countless satellites disguised as stars speeding across the sky.

“Miss the city yet?” Carol said, twisting V’s attention back to earth.

“A little.” V replied, “Never thought I’d miss the constant bombardment of advertisements, the blaring speakers of the corpo plaza, or the noise of AV’s flying past. There was always something to do, some place to be.” She gazed into the flame, letting it’s cyclic motion beckon her memories, “It was too much. But the city kept telling me it wasn’t enough. Broke myself into a thousand pieces chasing a dream I couldn’t reach.” A smile touched her lips and her eyes perked back to reality. She shifted her gaze back to Carol and shrugged. “Guess I’m still picking up the pieces.” A small grin touched her cheek and her gaze shifted back to the fire. Night city before seemed like the land of endless opportunity, the place where you went when nowhere else could handle your ambition. A chaotic game of King of the Hill independent of occupation. Every single person there played the same game—searching for their own mountain peak to call their own. Now, looking back across the empty desert towards where she expected to see the shining neon spotlights, she could say it all was a lie. Not one person in that city lived without the shadow of another’s thumb blocking the sunlight. And Even if you clambered out from under one thumb, and stood atop a mountain of lifeless bodies, even then another thumb took its place.

It struck V as strange that only here and now, so far from the city, did she understand what drove Johnny: He clambered out from underneath thumb after thumb after thumb, and when the thumbs wouldn’t leave, he just started lashed out against them like a cornered animal. Even then, two nuclear bombs didn’t do the trick.

The city itself was a thumb, and so long as you stood in the city its shadow hung over you. That rule even applied to Saburo Arasaka at the height of his power, and he paid the price for thinking himself above it more than once. The only way to win the cruel game was to not play, to not be under the thumb of another person, place, or thing. The only way to win was to get out while you’re still intact.

All the people around this fire learned that the hard way, each broken and battered. V had a melting brain and a computer to replace it. Panam carried the physical and mental scars of the city with the posture of a burdened leader. Mitch, Cassidy, and Carol, all lost family to the city. Evelyn flew like Icarus, taking herself and a piece of Judy into a small box on a hill outside the city.

“Well said.” Judy replied, breaking the contemplative silence that took over the group, “I think we made it out just in time too.” She pulled out a cigarette and stuffed the filter end into her mouth and used her lighter to turn the other end to an orange red ember. She took a drag from the cigarette and blew the sweet stench of artificial tobacco towards the center of the fire pit. The nicotine shot a tingling surge through her skull and relaxed the muscles in her face, leaving her neutral expression glaring into the burning ember on the end of her cigarette. The sickly smoke dribbling into the sky brought back smells and memories of places long gone, names forgotten, and moments lost in rain and sorrow. She flicked the cigarette into the fire, sending a warm prideful pulse of triumph through her limbs and sank her eyes into a tired smile.

“Well we’re all sure as hell glad to have you both rolling with us now,” Panam said addressing V and Judy, “and I can’t tell you how happy I am to be out of that place.” Panam looked up at the clouds covering the brilliant night sky. A drop of rain pelted her square between her eyes and forced her face back down to the fire. She wiped her face and grinned slightly, “And the rain out here isn’t toxic either. But we should probably get some shelter regardless.” Panam stood up, and stretched her arms high above her head, “See you all in the morning.” And strode away. Mitch, Cassidy, and Carol all followed suit, each giving their regards and heading off for the tent village.

V shook Judy with her arm, “What do you think?”

“That you should let me wear your jacket for the walk back” Judy said, her arms crossed over her midriff to keep her skin from touching the ever-cooling air. She removed her weight from V while she stood up and felt the residual warmth of the leather and canvas Aldecaldo jacket lay over her shoulders. V rest her arm around Judy’s neck as they walked away from the dwindling flame, surrounded by the lonely echoes of chirping crickets and crunching gravel beneath their feet. The cool humid air filled their lungs and raised the hairs on their arms, while the infrequent raindrops pelted their colorful haircuts and touched the atmosphere with a sweet scent of ozone. The 50-foot walk took far longer than needed, their pace slow and contemplative through the Arizona night.

25 feet from the tent V smirked, recalling a question she’d forgotten to ask, “Jude?”

“Yeah”

“Did you bring your max-tac uniform?”

Judy chuckled and turned her head up to V’s, “Thin tents, remember?”

“That’s not what I asked.” V replied. She tugged at Judy’s neck with her arm.

“Yeah it is, you gonk.” Judy retorted with a smile, she slid out from under V’s arm, turning to face her. A hand extended from under the draped Aldecaldo jacket, and grazed under V’s chin, gentle as a spider weaving its delicate web, it pulled lightly towards Judy’s face till their lips met, embracing for only a quick moment. V pulled away her face to see the canyon deep creases under those hazel eyes gazing up at her. Judy retracted her hand into the jacket as the rain’s pace increased, keeping eye contact as she turned and strode with a constrained swaying sensuality the final feet towards the tent, “and yes, I did bring it.” She said, entering the flap doorway to the unmistakable mess that was their tent.

V crossed her arms and looked upwards at the clouds in the sky, feeling the rain pet her face and slide down through her hair. Judy’s head stuck back out from the tent doorway.

“Are you coming inside or not you gonk?” she yelled.

“Coming!” V yelled back, as she started the short walk to her new home.

* * *

Cloud covered night’s only illumination in the arid forested valley shone dim from the front the exhausted gecko. It’s driver’s eyes hung thick over his eyelids like the clouds blocking the starlight from above. The red map in the corner of his vision pinged V’s location again. _Still where you last were_. He closed the map, turning his eyes back to the road ahead. _Only a few miles more_.

Only a few miles more, whatever happened after that, happened. The only plan his evermore dehydrated mind could muster boiled down to sorrowful honesty and complete transparency in the face of a man known for neither or both those things. He pulled his sinking brow up into his forehead with his sweat crusted hand, hoping to find a few more minutes of clear vision before total malfunction of his brain’s motivation complex from dehydration, or malnutrition, or sleep deprivation, or both. The uncertainty of the situation didn’t bother him anymore either, am observation he’d grown self aware of through the mental ramblings of the later evening.

_You should be terrified_. His mind wandered again into an empty state. He lowered his hand from his forehead and back to the weighted steering wheel. The hollowness of the world rose from exhaustion and the pasty white light bouncing off the road ahead. It sucked his eyes back in towards his brain and pulled his eyelids down halfway over his fake eyes. It pulled his head down towards the center of the car, and his mind into an abyss of nothing.

His conscious mind fought the hollowness with mental words and commands falling on deafened ears. _Stay awake. It is not that far_. _Stay awake. Only a few miles more. Stay awake please. You can sleep once you’re there. Please keep your eyes open. Please keep yourself conscious. Please keep me alive. Please please please. Please. Please…_

A thunderous crunch sent shimmering bullets of broken glass spewing into the cockpit of the beaten and broken car, showering the man’s face with streaks of fresh red blood as his body tumbled through the rolling cockpit. The elderly seatbelt snapped, cracking like a whip letting the body soar the now disintegrated windshield out into the open field.

He pushed himself to his knees, pressing into the ground through glass shards embedded in his hands, staining the damp hard dirt of the ground red with blood. His ribcage ached with the subdermal pain of a puncture, his arms, and legs sore from the landing. He raised his red mangled hands to in front of his unscathed wide eyes, examining them through the empty lenses of his glasses. His diaphragm pulsed a burst of air out from his beaten lungs, blood down his face and dribbling down the borrowed shirt.

Adrenaline filled the hollowness of the night and surged his legs to his feet.. His wide-eyed gaze turned from his hands behind him to the poor mangled face of the matchbox car wedged headfirst into a bell-shaped rock fifteen feet behind the puddle of fresh blood. He forced himself another breath of the frozen humid desert air, puffing a cloud of white fog into the lights of the gecko that flickered to a deathly black.

He pulled his right hand up into the dark borrowed overcoat feeling for the soreness in his ribcage. The light touch of his bloodied sore hand found it’s mark sending showering sparks of searing pain through his lungs into his throat, forcing an inhaled wince from the bruised lungs. A slow exhale passed while he retrieved his tortured hand and wiped it onto a white part of his red stained shirt.

The adrenaline’s environmental numbness faded, and the cool air beckoned his head towards the sky. He closed his eyes and let the dizziness of the wreck overcome him while his heartbeat’s highway pace slowed to a monotonous thump audible in his damaged ears. His breathing slow and methodical, calming him as the aching pains rose through his body and clenched his teeth.

He turned his head back to the vantablack night. The impaled front of the useless Gecko still visible through the dark, so too the highway to his right. The warm air of a painful sigh condensed on his lips, marking the start of a slow and long walk towards the end point of his journey.

**Author's Note:**

> Home  
> Home again.  
> I like to be there, when I can  
> When I come home old and tired  
> I like to warm my bones beside the fire.
> 
> Far away  
> Across the field  
> Tolling on the iron bell  
> Calls the faithful to their knees  
> To hear the softly spoken magic spell


End file.
